2019 Tour Of California Stage 4 Recap

Fabio Jakobsen sprinted to victory on the fourth stage of the Tour of California today. The big story, though, is that race leader Tejay van Garderen will hold onto the yellow jersey after an incident-packed day of racing.

Deceuninck-QuickStep rider Jakobsen of the Netherlands held onto the stage win despite a strong late burst from Peter Sagan in the closing stretch. Jasper Philipsen of UAE Team Emirates took second and world champion Sagan finished third. The win is Deceuninck-QuickStep’s third straight stage victory.

It was a dramatic day in the saddle, van Garderen’s so far uneventful tour was plagued with a day of mishaps. At about 10km to go, the EF Education First rider was sent flying after his chain snapped, forcing him to complete the stage on Australian team-mate Lachlan Morton’s bike.

With blood seeping out of his leg, he then lost more valuable time by taking a wrong turn. He was then held up by a mass crash near the finish.

Van Garderen finally crossed around 55 seconds behind the leaders, initially leaving Denmark’s Asgreen in the overall lead. But nearly 20 minutes after the finish, race officials made a determination to treat the crash, which occurred just outside 3km to go, as if it had happened within 3km to go. Thus, giving affected riders field time.